


slow, steady and a little unusual

by softlightwood



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M, alec is an endearing disaster and his friends are completely unhelpful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:19:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6086449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softlightwood/pseuds/softlightwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a few silent moments of Alec glumly clinging to Isabelle's huge, fluffy pink pillow and sighing intermittently, she puts down the nail polish and stands to straddle the back of her chair, angled towards the bed. "What happened?"</p><p>Alec, the most dramatic Lightwood to ever exist in the history of their family tree, sighs again. "What makes you think something happened?"</p><p>Isabelle makes a vague gesture at his sad, mopey face and general demeanour. Alec, oddly, turns a shade very similar to the pillow. With a final sigh, he says "I fell down the stairs".</p><p>Isabelle blinks slowly.</p><p>"He kissed me, and i- i fell. Down the stairs"</p>
            </blockquote>





	slow, steady and a little unusual

**Author's Note:**

> Reading The Bane Chronicles and Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy has left me in a very _malec_ sort of mood, and then somehow this little fic happened. 
> 
> i haven't ever written for this fandom before so there are probably a whole bunch of fics with the same premise, but i couldn't stop thinking about early malec from Alec's point of view.
> 
> (this was going to be canon but it...is not. at all. it's set after The Course of True Love (and First Dates) and has mentions of things that happened in there, but other than that i just sort of rolled with it)
> 
> anyway, enjoy!!

Alec had been in a ridiculous daze the whole walk home from Magnus' loft.

Realistically, he could have been ambushed by a hoard of angry demons at any point and he would have been too caught up in the ghost of warmth at his lips to even notice. _This_ a voice in his head says, _is why you've always ruled out any sort of romantic interaction_ , but the voice is small, and he ignores it. He almost trips up the steps to the institute and comes very close to making a lifelong nemesis when his foot falls mere millimetres from Church's tail, but he makes it to his own room relatively unscathed and unambushed.

And then, staring up at the crack in his ceiling with a stupid smile on his face, he actually _thinks_ about it. 

Thinks first about Magnus kissing him, Magnus' hands in his hair and settled against his lower back, fingertips tracing the old rune scars littered across it's expanse. There was something electric, magnetic, and not just in the way Magnus accidentally shot a spark of magic at the refrigerator when Alec caught his bottom lip between his teeth. Realistically they were kissing only for a matter of minutes but Alec felt as though he'd been stuck in Faerie, and his mouth had been one with Magnus' for years. It was enough to block out the disastrous events preluding said kissing, but then Alec distinctly and quite suddenly remembers tripping backwards down a whole flight of stairs and the bottom of his back gives off a soft ache in confirmation.

Somehow, in his _i just made out with the High Warlock of Brooklyn_ daze, his brain had neglected to bring this fact to his attention. 

But here it is, startling in it's revelation. 

He _fell_ down the _stairs_. In front of Magnus, presumably. Magnus must surely never want to see him again, and probably has a whole waiting list of cooler, less clumsily, disastrously awkward suitors than a shadowhunter who'd never even kissed anyone before Magnus. 

Alec lets out a low, pained whine and somehow drags himself across the hall to Isabelle's room. 

Isabelle is in the middle of painting her fingernails a deep, blood red when Alec stumbles in and throws himself bodily into the silk sheets of her bed. She doesn't even flinch, just continues the slow and monotonous stroke of the brush up and around her nails as though she'd been expecting her catastrophe of an older brother to do exactly this.

She probably had, Alec thought moodily, and shifted so that he was sitting with his arms locked firmly around a pillow. She probably had an ' _I'm sorry you're a huge embarrassment but i still love you, mostly_ ' speech planned out and everything. 

After a few silent moments of Alec glumly clinging to Isabelle's huge, fluffy pink pillow and sighing intermittently, she puts down the nail polish and moves to straddle the back of her chair, angled toward the bed. "What happened?"

Alec, the most dramatic Lightwood to ever exist in the history of their family tree, sighs again. "What makes you think something happened?"

Isabelle makes a vague gesture at his sad, mopey face and general demeanour. Alec, oddly, turns a shade very similar to the pillow. With a final sigh, he says "I fell down the stairs".

Isabelle blinks slowly.

"He kissed me, and i- i fell. Down the stairs"

Isabelle, to her credit, does keep a solemn face for all of ten seconds and has the decency to cover her mouth when the giggles start. Alec shifts from pink to a more aggressively embarrassed red and then Isabelle says the worst thing she could possibly ever say in this situation.

"Alec, I love you, but you're a disaster. Also, Jace totally found out about your date from _someone_ and is on his way back from Clary's to like, interrogate you. Whatever it is that bros do"

Jace is the _last_ person who needs to know about this. In fact, Alec would rather stand in front of the entire Clave and announce that he is totally gay for the High Warlock of Brooklyn than have his parabatai, the smoothest person in the entire history of any shadowhunter, know that he's a dating disaster.

"Kill me, Iz" he says pitifully, holding out a dagger from his belt and sweeping a hand over his eyes. "Kill me before Jace can mock me into the next century, i can't go on". 

Isabelle rolls her eyes and blows distractedly at her drying nails. "You're being dramatic"

Alec thinks about something and then frowns in her direction, suddenly suspicious. "You've been spending more time with the mundane, haven't you? No one says bros, Isabelle"

She moves to drape herself across the foot of the bed like some long, luxurious cat and gives him a sweet smile. "Are you honestly passing dating judgements right now?".

Alec considers playing the outraged brother card but knows it will be useless, that it has always been useless ever since he found her making out with a vampire boy when she was fifteen and she simply smiled and and told him that _one_ of them had to be irresponsible, and she was taking one for the team. If she really wanted to make eyes at the bizarre mundane boy that Clary seemed insistent on dragging around everywhere, then he would turn a blind eye. At least mundanes appeared to threaten easier, or something. 

Simon Lewis was the least of his problems, at this point. 

Isabelle gave him a sympathetic pat on the ankle. "I think you're making a bigger thing out of this than you need to, you know? He's probably endeared by your inability to function like an actual person". Alec gives her a dry look. "What? You're related to _me_ , there has to be a vantage point somewhere".

Just as he's really considering shipping himself off to an institute in like, Antarctica, where the only people to be embarrassed around were the penguins, Jace springs into the room and pounces at Alec.

"I can't believe you" he says, pelting Alec around the head with a decorative cushion. "You went on a date and you didn't even _tell_ me. I could have offered you dating advice, given you some of my very smoothest lines -"

"At this point" Clary pipes up from where she's appeared at the door, "I'd like to point out that I'm not dating you for your 'smooth lines'". She adds little finger quotations around _smooth lines_ and Isabelle remembers how glad she is to have Clary.

"- that is besides the point, Clary, and only true because my charm drew you in without me even having to flirt. Anyway, Alec, as your parabatai I'm very offended".

Clary has migrated over to the dressing table where Isabelle is weaving a complex braid through her unruly curls and she whispers something only Isabelle hears, which sets them both laughing loud enough for Alec to get the upper hand over a very distracted and put-out Jace. Jace huffs from where he's been pinned down - Alec knows he could easily wiggle out if he really wanted to - and then he gets the worst, most delighted look on his face. "Alec _Lightwood_ , have you been fraternising with vampires?"

Isabelle drops the hairbrush and whips around in surprise and Alec leaps off of Jace and back towards the pillows with an embarrassed squeak. "No" he says, indignant. "It's - a bruise. I fell"

"On your neck?" Jace asks, revelling in Alec's torment. Alec huffs and Isabelle comes over to jab at the offending mark in interest, while Clary makes an amused sound. 

"An iratze would have saved you weeks of Jace mocking" she comments, not unsympathetically. Alec sees the twitch at the corner of Isabelle's mouth, and he shoots her a warning glare.

"I'm surprised you didn't need an iratze, actually" she says, "seeing as though you fell down all of those stairs".

There's a moment of contemplative silence and then all at once,

"What stairs?-"

"- _Isabelle_ -"

"- _Magnus'_ stairs?"

Clary's question hangs in the air for a few moments and then Jace is properly laughing, falling to his knees by the bed as he asks "oh Angel, why did you not provide us with the rune for smooth dating? Must i really carry the burden of being the only one capable of flirtation?". He clutches dramatically at his chest and Alec, not for the first time in their friendship, regrets his every life choice up until this moment.

"Would you _just_ " Alec cuts himself off with a huff, briefly considers smothering either himself or Jace with Isabelle's pillow. "I hate you all. _All_. None of you are being helpful and everything is awful"

Isabelle ruffles his hair somewhere between comforting and mocking while Clary aims a series of stern glances in Jace's general direction.

"I'm sorry" Jace says, looking nothing of the sort. "My expertise does not lie in seducing warlocks with a penchant for eccentricity, but i _can_ try and kill him or something if he's making you this" he gestures vaguely, "whiny. I doubt i stand all that much of a chance but i will fight him, for your honour"

Alec rolls and very pointedly shoves his face into the bed.

"Actually, Jace, fighting _for_ his honour implies that you want to date Alec for yourself" Clary points out, and Alec groans again. Now that he's very much over the odd stage in his life where he thought he was attracted to Jace, the thought of having to put up with his charm more than he already did was positively torture. Jace evidently senses Alec's genuine distress and lays a comforting hand by his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, it can't have been that bad. Anyway, he _likes_ you, idiot. He won't give up because you fell down some stairs". For Jace, this is about as genuine and sympathetic as it gets barring all events of crises and near-death, so Alec rolls over to give him a thankful smile and a fond pet on the arm. Then, he sighs, and recalls in great detail the disaster that was The Date - being late and sweaty and embarrassed when he first showed up, accidentally spilling alcohol all down his shirt, stumbling and stuttering his words for the first hour and then making the entire dinner awkward because he had his runes on display in a downworlder place. He does add in that the time between leaving the diner and arriving at Magnus' apartment was much better and gave him some hope - saving a werewolf and making conversation better than he had all day - but doesn't give them all of those specifics. Some things are better kept for fond reminiscing in the middle of the night.

"And i thought it was fine, until i fell down the stairs. He agreed to see me again, and then i _fell down the stairs_ "

"Yes" says Jace, "we gathered that much. Alec, you're overthinking this. He likes you. Your weird, awkward qualities are probably endearing"

"That's what i said" Isabelle puts in.

"Well" Alec says finally. "This conversation has been enthralling, but I'm going to go and be ashamed in my own room where no one can stop me from dying of embarrassment in my sleep"

As he's leaving, he distinctly hears Jace's voice say "by the angel, Iz, couldn't you have left at least _one_ spec of the Lightwood charm for Alec?" and revels in the sound of a pillow hitting what he can only hope is Jace's head. 

-

Shadowhunters were, by very definition, light sleepers. They had to be, and were trained to be on constant alert in case of one demon emergency or another. Which is why when a soft _whoosh_ flows through the room followed quickly by a gentle thump, Alec is already awake and in a defence stance with the dagger from beneath his pillow clutched in his right hand. 

"Ah" a familiar voice says. "Sneaking up on a sleeping shadowhunter was perhaps not my best move".

Alec deflates instantly and though he's not wearing any sort of vision rune, he can recognise the tall, slender outline of Magnus standing by the fading sparks of a portal. It closes and with a snap of his fingers, the room is bathed in a warm, gentle glow. He's wearing what appear to simply be skin tight, black trousers with a deep red shirt embroidered with gold, only the bottom button fastened to actually keep it on. The rest is just a wonderfully long expanse of chest covered only by several long necklaces, and Magnus is standing with his hands in the pockets of his long black coat like he's waiting for something.

Alec remembers, all at once, that he sleeps in nothing but loose pyjama pants. 

"Um" he says, and then "hi?"

Magnus, very very briefly, looks the tiniest bit shy. Alec is tired, though. He could easily have imagined it. "Alexander" Magnus says, soft, like it's an endearment. "What are you doing to me?"

Alec shifts from one foot to the other and remembers to let go of the dagger in his hand. "Nothing, at the moment".

Magnus lifts both eyebrows, clearly amused, but says nothing. "Usually, when i say _next Friday_ , I have it in me to actually wait that amount of time. Especially, as you might notice, that I'm old enough for weeks to pass as fleetingly as a breath. I did receive a text message from one Isabelle Lightwood that rather unsubtly asked if i did actually like you and would in fact be seeing you again, and it occurred to me that you might think otherwise."

Alec blinks once, and says "well. I'm kind of a disaster? Um, but if Isabelle passive-aggressively made you feel like you have to, um, be here-" Magnus takes a step forwards and holds up a finger, making Alec pause mid-sentence. If, that is, a jumble of nervous words can actually fall under the title of a sentence. 

"I'm never usually anywhere I don't want to be". Talking to Magnus seemed often like trying to crack a code, but Alec wasn't sure if that was Magnus or just that he was incompetent around beautiful people.

"Oh" Alec said. "Right. I just-" and usually, Alec was a very _think before you speak_ type of person, but his brain was entirely disconnected from his mouth at this point. "-i thought, well, i thought maybe I'd screwed everything up by being a completely lousy date and, well, i really like you, Magnus, and. Well, I'm not...exactly a catch?"

Magnus stepped forwards again and closed the small gap between them, lifting one hand to curve carefully around the sharp line of Alec's jaw. "Alec. I didn't portal all the way here just to tell you that you're a disaster and I don't want to see you again. You _are_ a disaster, but you're something else entirely. You have a good soul and a kind heart. And" he made a vague gesture at Alec's bare torso with his free hand, "you know, all of this. What I'm saying is, if you'll have me, I'd like to spend more time getting to know you"

It's the same brave, intense feeling that had wound it's way around Alec's heart the first time he'd initiated a kiss with Magnus today and he tips forwards until their mouths meet, answering Magnus with his actions because he can't rely on his words. Magnus keeps one hand cupping Alec's jaw and brings the other to rest at his bare waist, thumb stroking soft little circles to match the slow, steady pace of the kisses and Alec sighs into his mouth. 

They pull away and Magnus keeps his forehead tipped to rest against Alec's and there's something there, something different, something forming around the magnetism that had pulled them together in the first place. Alec smiles and says "we don't _have_ to go on dates".

"Right" Magnus agrees. "We could stay in, watch a movie. Eat food inside and away from unfriendly waitstaff and uh, other potential areas of crises"

Alec tips forwards to kiss him again, once, softly, because he can. "We could...not talk about the awful date thing?". Magnus laughs, then.

"Oh, no. I was polite enough to close the door and let you tumble down the stairs in private, but I can't possibly forget that you turned up late and covered yourself in wine". There's something teasing and Alec realises, with definite surprise, something comfortable about the whole interaction that leaves a smile lingering at his mouth. 

"Fair enough" Alec says, knowing no level of teasing can be worse than Jace's after he heard about the whole ordeal. Magnus' cat eyes are twinkling with something, something soft and amused, and Alec takes him by the hand and leads him toward the bed. Magnus goes willingly, back propped against the soft pillows, an arm curved around Alec's bare shoulders as Alec rests his head carefully on Magnus' shoulder. Alec takes his hand and examines all of the rings that adorn his fingers, twirling each one and asking in a soft, sleepy voice if he wore them for any particular reason or if he just liked jewellery. Admittedly it was a bit of both, but Magnus found himself talking about how the emerald one was a gift from some 17th century pirates who had no idea they'd given him it, how the silver one on his thumb was a gift from an old friend and the gold one the closest thing he had to any sort of heirloom. 

Alec remembers listening to Magnus' soft, honey voice tell tales of pirates and kings and eventually he'd fallen asleep, fingers intertwined with Magnus' own and his head dropped gently against his chest. Magnus was gone when Alec awoke, but in his place was a small square of paper with a few words decorating the surface in a fancy, cursive handwriting. 

_Sorry, i had a client and The Chairman worries if i stay out all night unannounced. Also, I'm pretty sure your sister was considering barging in to wake you up and i figured I'd save you any further teasing. See you Friday? - Magnus (PS - you're a catch, Alexander Lightwood)_

Alec tucked it safely beneath his pillow, and didn't stop smiling all day.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me/talk to me over at tumblr @softlightwood !!


End file.
